Most websites are significantly underdelivering against expectations, particularly when it comes to demand generation and delivering MQLs (marketing qualified leads).

Conversion rate optimization strategies and success measurements are very different depending on your conversion goals and if you are a B2B or a B2C organization. The primary difference is that a B2C optimization often ends at a conversion point and a B2B optimization often begins at a conversion point.

This means the role of conversion rate optimization looks very different between B2B and B2C. More importantly, success is measured very differently.

In B2C, conversion rate optimization is measured by a funnel that looks like:

You can identify velocity, drop off, cart abandonment and follow up to either cart abandonment with incentives or cross selling following a commerce conversion. B2C conversion goals are typically to reduce the amount of clicks in a funnel and will include additional product suggestions and bundling.

In B2B, conversion rate optimization is often measured by content downloads, demo requests, contact form fills and MQLs generated. More sophisticated organizations will continue to track CRO effectiveness by tracking how many MQLs convert to SQLs, then into revenue and how website generated MQLs rank in CLV (Customer Lifetime Value) compared to other lead sources. B2B conversion goals are to maintain a longer visit, consume more content and to progress to the next journey milestone.

A B2B funnel is measured by a funnel that looks like:

Once you have an understanding of your foundational CRO strategies and goals, it’s time to focus on the optimization component. Optimization is where B2C and B2B strategies merge. If you aren’t testing different options, then you can’t continuously optimize. Tools like A/B Tasty and Optimizely are industry leading solutions.

As a benchmark, we found a collection of stats in this article from Funnel Overload that sets the bar for your CRO. Its a great resource for measuring where you should be and where you might need to go.

“The average website conversion rate is 2.35%”

Larry Kim

Whichever type organization you are and however you are measuring CRO, we advocate leveraging tools like FullStory to truly understand the visitor experience and the conversion funnel experience. Watching users in action help you understand the nuances of the experience and the aggregate analytics will help you compare funnels and see where friction and frustration can be removed.